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13 de juny 2019

Quim Forn's Final Plea (12/6/2019)

Here is an English translation (by MS) of Quim Forn's final plea to the Supreme Court. He was Catalonia's Interior Minister for under four months in 2017.
Click here if need be to access the whole text.

Supreme Court. 12 June 2019

My
first words are to endorse everything my counsel has said.

I am using this intervention to thank my lawyers, Xavier Melero and Judit
Gené, and the rest of the defence team for the work they have done
during these four intense months of the trial.

I will go on to make some considerations in this plea before the Court:

1.- I have been in politics since the age of 17, motivated by the desire to
change things, by an ethical and social commitment and by a desire to
improve the country and society in which I live.

I have taken part in countless cultural, civic and social initiatives driven
by the Catalan associative world.

I have always based this personal commitment on democratic values and
respect for the person, as the central axis of all action.

This introduction may surprise you, but I want to make clear the
principles that have always inspired my political activity and from
which I have never deviated.

2.- I categorically deny that my action as a member of the Catalan
government was aimed at liquidating the Spanish Constitution and
attacking the constitutional order, using violence.

3.- If today we are before this court, it is due to a failure of politics
and as a punishment for the political challenge that the organization
of the referendum on October 1 amounted to. This referendum had the
endorsement of a very considerable majority of the Parliament of
Catalonia and likewise the support of a large majority of Catalan
society.

In the government, we always believed that there was another way to
interpret the law, that it is not fossilized, and that a more
flexible interpretation would allow us to reach an accord that would
lead to an agreed solution for our demands.

This will to reach agreement was manifested repeatedly, before and after
the holding of the referendum.

4.- On October 1 voting took place in about two thousand polling stations.
During the trial, both the witnesses and the images we have
visualized refer to fewer than twenty incidents in the whole of the
territory of Catalonia. Wherever they came from we condemn such
incidents, but that can in no way cloud the peaceful nature of the
vote.

5.- The Mossos d'Esquadra police corps always complied with the orders of
the prosecutor and with the court injunctions. They never received,
either from me or from any member of the government, any instruction
to stop fulfilling their obligations as court police.

My statements in favour of the holding of the referendum never
interfered with the obligations of the police; they merely expressed
my support for the government's political commitment.

6.- The Public Prosecutor's Office began its concluding report affirming that
"political ideas are not pursued". Allow me to doubt this
claim. You have tried to convince us that this is so but the truth of
the facts belies it. In the order of February 2, 2018 the
investigating judge justified my detention in prison, even despite
having resigned by seat as an MP, due to the maintenance of my
pro-sovereignty political ideas. In the resolution, the judge
affirmed that this ideology is the expression of my legitimate
ideological freedom but that because of the coexistence of my ideas
"in a context in which there is no certainty that the intention
to achieve independence has disappeared from Catalonia", I
should remain in pretrial detention. Today I request freedom once
again.

7.- I have
given plenty of evidence throughout this trial of my willingness to
collaborate. This has been my intention at all times and I refer you
to my actions. On November 2, I went to testify before the National
Court. At that time the content of the complaint filed by the Office
of the Prosecutor was already in circulation. I returned deliberately
from Brussels and went to testify. I received the summons on a public
holiday, less than 24 hours before having to testify and barely
having time to meet with my lawyer. I went to explain my actions,
convinced (as I still am) that I have not committed any crime, and
accepting, as I have always done, my responsibility for all my acts
carried out in the exercise of the post of Interior Minister of the
Generalitat de Catalunya. I may have made mistakes, but in no
case have I behaved to put at risk the citizens’ safety.

8.- I still believe and fight for democracy, freedom and justice.

I continue to believe in, and defend, Catalonia's right to
self-determination, dialogue and respect for plurality as the only
way for resolving conflicts.

I abhor intolerance and any violent attitude or action.

After 19 months in prison, these ideals and my political principles remain
firm.

9.- Today, I am more convinced than ever that only through dialogue shall we be
able to resolve the political conflict that confronts us.